Pokemon Sun and Moon become second-largest 3DS launch in Japan

It would seem that Pokemon Sun and Moon‘s lineup of legendaries, vast number of pre-launch trailers, glowing reviews, and possibly even price have turned the games into a smashing success in Japan. Nintendo has announced that the games sold a combined 1.9 million copies in its home territory during their first weekend of availability. Sales numbers for North America aren’t available at the moment, while the games aren’t even available in Europe yet – something that’s set to change tomorrow.

With those numbers, Pokemon Sun and Moon become the second-largest 3DS launch in Japan. They settle behind only Pokemon X and Y, which managed to sell 2.1 million copies in their first weekend on shelves. As Eurogamer points out, digital sales aren’t taken into account here, so when those are tallied and added to the totals, Pokemon Sun and Moon could very well pull ahead of X and Y.

Even if Sun and Moon don’t manage to take the top spot, those are still impressive sales numbers. Nintendo anticipated a big launch, shipping 10 million copies of the games to retailers worldwide. That was enough to break 3DS shipment records, so Nintendo is definitely expecting great things for Sun and Moon.

So far, Sun and Moon have been netting positive reviews, with both titles currently holding down an aggregate score of 86 on Metacritic. Nintendo’s hopes for stellar sales are pinned on the success of Pokemon GO as well, which reignited interest in the mainline Pokemon series. Both of those factors could turn Pokemon Sun and Moon into the largest 3DS launch ever by the time everything is said and done.

If Pokemon GO‘s popularity isn’t enough to drive sales, the fact that Sun and Moon make a lot of minor tweaks to the tried-and-true Pokemon formula might be. We’ll just have to wait and see how everything shakes out. Nintendo will like share global sales numbers once the European launch of Sun and Moon is in the books, so stay tuned.